Grandma Sidle
by Sultry Sweet
Summary: As Lindsey has her baby, it brings Catherine and Sara closer than either imagined. A FLUFF ONESHOT!


_**I tried to get the math as precise as I could, so if you know I'm wrong with the numbers…explain it to me if you'd like and I apologize if it irritates you. :/**_

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My baby was home from college, but the only reason I found out was because in my living room upon my arrival after a tough shift, two beaming faces, both I recognized met me from the couch. Lindsey was wearing maternity clothes, both hands protectively around her tight, round stomach. She glowed and I wanted to smile. My baby was having a baby. But that made me a grandmother, a fact that made me feel extremely old, but it was still a beautiful sight to see my daughter continue the cycle. The other face was one I hadn't seen since she took off without a word to anyone but our supervisor, her boyfriend.

Her brown locks were extended further than they normally, stopped at her chest instead of a quarter of an inch past her shoulders. She looked well, but there was no point in her presence in my home, playing Chatty Cathy with my not-so-little little girl.

"Ha, oh, hey, mom," Lindsey smiled at me as she had not too long ago been smiling at Sara and what she had said. She pushed off the top of the couch, her stomach pointed upward with one hand rested on it, her back carefully arched. "I thought I'd surprise you with a visit. Not to mention, I was getting kind of lonely at WLVU. Tom had to work tonight and his parents were with us last weekend so things have been hectic as well as boring for a pregnant girl."

Tom was the perfect man for my perfect little woman. They got married what seemed like suddenly after Sara left though it had been maybe eight months ago.

Sara smiled and stood. "Well, I should go. I only wanted to keep you company until Catherine got back."

"How did you two come across each other," I had to ask before Sara went and pulled a second disappearing act.

"Well, I was in the neighborhood when I noticed a different car in the Willows' driveway and a familiar blonde fumbling with her keys," Sara addressed me, but by the end of the sentence she was smiling at Lindsey from behind her back. Lindsey smiled at her own clumsy action and grew red in the cheeks as she focused on the floor.

"Where have you been for the past three and a half years," I asked her, not wanting to sound sad that she hadn't thought to call or visit, but my voice failed to conceal my feelings.

"Around."

"But not in Vegas."

"No."

"How-how've you been?"

"Just fine. You look tired now, but I can see you've been great. Your hair looks amazing for being such a strangled mess," she smiled and revealed her front teeth that held an empty space between them. It was her signature smile, the unmistakable feature of Sara Sidle.

Her comment through me for a loop, though. My hair looked brushed for the most part, but mainly it was a fuzz ball covering a majority of my face. I had changed in the lab before I made my way home and the shirt was hardly there. I didn't care what I looked like because no one was supposed to see me and I would have only slithered into bed when I walked through the door anyway. Now that I had my pregnant daughter and enigma of a former colleague in my domain, I was rethinking the tight, silk light blue spaghetti strap shirt. My breasts were toppling over the framework of the shirt and I oddly found Sara's eyes raking over the area.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Lindsey cringe. I didn't think it was important because relaxed with a deep breath afterward. I paid full attention to Sara and picked up a fistful of hair, looked at it, then rolled my eyes thinking she was wrong about it looking even remotely near "good".

"Maybe we can catch up sometime," Sara started for the front door. I was at a loss for words until suddenly Lindsey clutched Sara's shoulder.

"Oh, my God…I think my water broke. Yeah, it definitely broke. Ow!"

She clamped her eyes shut and I took that as her contractions kicking in. We needed to document the time between each contraction in order to plot her point of labor accurately. We also needed to rush her to the hospital.

"Okay, breath, sweetie. Do the breathing exercises they taught you in your birthing class," I told her in my calming voice.

She violently nodded and tried to breath correctly for assistance while I figured out what to do with the situation. She wasn't due for another week and she was nowhere near her overnight bag or her husband. I couldn't be in two places at once, but then it dawned on me how Sara really was there when she spoke up.

"What's your apartment number," she asked Lindsey. I assumed to retrieve my daughter's bag.

"Twenty-one…it's on the second floor," she managed between the pain and labored breathing.

"Okay, what office should Tom be in?"

"Fourth floor. Ask the receptionist Merriam for Tom Shillings…just tell her it's about me and she'll call him right away."

I wrapped one of Lindsey's arms around my shoulder and ushered her out the door while Sara collected necessary information. She took out her cell phone, reached into my right, back pocket and fished out my cell. She switched the two of them and helped me get Lindsey into my car.

"Call me to let me know anything! If anything changes, I want to know. Got it?"

She really left me no room to deny her information to my daughter's delivery so I nodded and gulped. This was not how I pictured my grandchild being brought into the world, but I thought I could get use to it by the time I saw their darling face staring back at my precious daughter's smile.

Sara sped away in her car and I hurried as best I could to the hospital. Within ten minutes, we were in the building and after another five, Lindsey was placed in a wheelchair.

I pressed the two button on Sara's phone once I flipped it open and found it was assigned a Speed Dial contact, my name being the contact. My eyes widened and my jaw hit the floor with a loud thud. "Number one is automatically Voicemail, so…technically I'm the first person she would want to call?"

I hadn't meant to say that aloud in public, but it slipped and my thoughts were too space consuming. My head had filled up the amount of megabyte usage for a lifetime on thoughts so from that point on, none would make it inside.

I shook my head and held down the number until I saw my picture ID appear on her phone. Before I could bring the device to my ear, I studied the image for a moment. After a few seconds, I remembered the time it had been taken.

It was my day off, and conveniently Sara's day off as well. We had made a silent mutual agreement at the beginning of that week we would play nice and attempt a friendship. We got off on the right foot after that so we decided to spend the day together at the park. We wanted to be away from home and out in the fresh air and bursting sunlight so a friendly place seemed like the perfect getaway.

I was wrestling a stray, shaggy dog over a long stick when she took the picture and I could be seen laughing as I tugged on my end of the branch. The sun was perfect and so was the green grass on the ground with a tree behind me in the right hand corner of the photo, three more in the distance in the center, while there was one not too far off from the dog and I in the left hand corner. I was wearing basic blue jeans, light denim, with a red tank top.

Why the hell had she kept the picture? Why the hell had she taken it in the first place? And why was it now the picture she saw every time she called me, if she bothered to call? All those questions traveled through the full memory of my mind and it wasn't until I heard a panicked "hello?" from the speaker that I realized I had forgotten who I had called.

"Oh, Sara…sorry, I was…busy thinking."

"Is she okay? What's going on? Why'd you call? I have her bag and right now I'm on my way to Tom's office. Nothing happened, right?"

I hardly heard the different questions being flung at me she asked them so fast. I thought it was strange for her to care so much about Lindsey, but I welcomed a sort of second parent considering everything that happened with her father.

"She's fine. They moved her into a shared room until she's dilated enough. She's half way through to where she needs to be before they can move her."

"Okay, that's good. That's good. I'm pulling into the parking lot at the office. Tell her I'm working fast for her and we'll be there soon."

"Yeah, all right."

With the finished exchange, we disconnected and strolled into Lindsey's hospital room. I relayed the information and she begged me to her bedside. I held her hand and we talked about Sara. She informed me on how close they had gotten within a matter of minutes and things Sara avoided during their conversation. I thought nothing odd of it, but Lindsey proposed Sara had a "thing" for me. I gasped and looked at her as though it was all the labor she was going through that made her crazy.

I told her when I was in labor with her, I said anything and everything to get what I wanted, like drugs, and to let people know how much pain I really was in. But I did forget to mention how I blamed her father for punishing me with his penis by forcing me through delivery. That I yanked at his shirtfront and bit his bottom lip when I was legs up, ready to shit myself to get her head out of the reproductive part of my anatomy. That I punched a nurse in the face because she got to close to me with her ginger voice. That I elbowed Eddie in the ribs when he tried to make a joke so I would calm down a bit and the doctor delivering Lindsey had laughed. That I clamped down so hard on Eddie's hand, it had to be put it on ice to lessen the swelling. That when Eddie first held his baby girl, his hand was bandaged because of my previously mentioned death grip. And that as I gave my final push, I gritted my teeth and screamed, "Get out of me you demon child that brings me so much pain!"

But none of those things were important. What was important was that Eddie was there, and Lindsey was born healthy and without any complications. That was what I hoped would happen with her today. Everything would be as it aught to and love suffocated the cold, white room.

"We're here," Sara shouted from the hallway as she sprinted inside to get to Lindsey. Tom ran after her and crashed into her, both falling to the tile floor with flowers and a teddy bear. I had to giggle and apparently Lindsey relaxed enough by that point to laugh along.

Sara pushed herself off the floor and gripped her fist around the shoulder of Tom's jacket to drag him to his feet. Once he was firmly planted on both correct limbs, he brushed his jacket off and picked the bouquet from the floor. Sara took the teddy bear by one of its arms and cleared her throat.

"Linds, baby, how are you," Tom asked his wife.

"I'm feeling better now that that happened," she held her smile as she attempted to stifle another laugh.

Tom smiled and kissed the top of her forehead, a little lower than her hairline and handed over the flowers for my little girl to smell. "I got your favorite."

Her favorite flowers were orchids, like mother like daughter. I smiled as I remembered when I held Lindsey in my arms for the first time. My hair was stuck to my forehead by sweat, my heart was open, tears streaked down my cheeks and I smiled. I couldn't believe I finally had someone else to live for, someone to take care of and raise and someone to teach. I had a baby girl and I was happy. I hadn't been that happy in a long while.

"Tom might have gotten you your favorite flowers, but how awesome am I to have bought you this large teddy bear for your kid," Sara shot out with a cocky smile that emitted a laugh from me. Though she sounded conceited, we all knew she was a joker.

Lindsey chuckled, grabbed the bear, and held it tight against her left side. "Thank you…both of you."

Her doctor then came in as if on cue to check her progress.

"Good news. We can move you into your own delivery room, Mrs. Shillings."

Sara stepped away and walked toward me as a few nurses pushed the bed through the room and out the hall.

"We'll be waiting when you're allowed visitors," I called to her as she disappeared from my line of vision. Sara's hand found its way to the small of my back and I sighed with my hands clasped together in prayer.

"She'll be fine. After all, you are her mother."

She pulled me closer and soon if felt as if we were joined at the hip. I didn't mind the feeling. I was glad to have someone to share this with, someone that wasn't Lindsey.

"I know, but I'm a mom. You can always count on a mom to worry about her little girl."

We found two seats in the waiting room and I couldn't stop thinking about my life. I was about to officially become a grandmother, a grandmother! It was something I had thought of in my future, but facing it down gave me a new outlook.

"Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, um, yeah. I'm just thinking about my grandchild. Just seeing that word makes me want to shiver now."

Sara laughed and a wacky thought popped into my head. "Want to be a grandma with me?"

"Excuse me?"

She wasn't offended, only surprised. That was expected. I surprised myself having blurted what I thought. Springing things on people was not something I was good at, nor would I ever be.

"Well, I…Eddie's not around anymore so she or he won't have the normal four grandparents. She or he will have three. I was already a single mother. I don't want to be a single grandmother. Will you?"

"Uh, technically we'd have to be married for that to work. And two women could only get married to each other in certain states."

"Then we'll fly to where we need to be and tie the knot. Come on, Sara. I need you."

I saw what looked like a moment of shock ignite in her brilliant brown eyes then desire as the color of said eyes turned a somewhat charcoal. Maybe Lindsey was right about Sara's feelings. Not something I really wanted to tamper with, but maybe I was denying _my _feelings. Watching Sara alone made me giddy for unknown reasons. Maybe this was too late a time to seriously look into my life.

"Be old with me," I asked.

Sara chuckled and leaned forward, her hand lightly cupping the right side of my face. Our lips almost grazed each other before she made a comment.

"Hey, I'm five years behind you on that issue…but I will _pretend _I'm old with you, for you."

"Shut up."

"Okay."

Then, her lips pushed mine back toward my teeth.

It was tender, slow. No one, not even Eddie, kissed me like that. My body and brain finally became in sync as Sara was about to pull away. I stuck my right hand out to her left hip and rested it there with confidence. My other hand then jumped at the chance to Sara as my right hand had been able to and settled on her right thigh.

She got the message.

I felt her tongue dart out to tango with my lips. She slithered through the parting my lips had formed and I could taste her. She was remarkable and that, along with the moment, I would never forget. Who said real life didn't happen like in the movies?

Her right hand decided it was time to touch me as well because the next heat I felt was at my side, midway up my torso and a thumb beneath the underside of my left breast. We deepened the kiss and invited intensified passion to enter our kisses. It seemed like an eternity before we finally calmed down and pulled away for good.

When Lindsey's doctor came out, it was apparent it had been a while. She smiled as she approached Sara and I, which meant things looked well.

"Your daughter's in good shape. We expect a quick recovery. Delivery was relatively fast and of course, they were pre-mature, but they're in good hands and absolutely healthy."

"Wait, 'they'," I had to ask, confusion clouding all other thoughts.

"I'm surprised she didn't tell you. She had twins. One boy and one girl," the doctor answered.

"She wanted to wait until she had them before she told you," Sara explained to me. "She said she and Tom couldn't be sure if it was two girls or not and they didn't want to say anything until you saw for yourself. I kind of get it, but even if I didn't, it's not something to get. It's something to accept and love because of the person it came from."

"She's resting right now with the twins, but we're permitting visitors now. Just on down the hall, fourth door to the right," the doctor informed us.

I was joyous and wanted to shout at the top of my lungs, dance around on the rooftop of the extremely large building we were in. I had not one, but two very special grandchildren. And I had Sara.

"Let's go see those little rascals, shall we," Sara showed me her enthusiasm as she held out her hand to me from a standing position.

When we were inside the room, the photo I saw was like a dream. Lindsey's hair was stuck to her forehead by sweat with a warm and welcoming smile, her face a little red, her heart open and worn on her sleeve. It was as I imagined it and I was as happy as I was when I first looked into her eyes.

"Mommy, come take a look," she commanded. When she peeled her eyes away from her babies, I saw my baby's eyes, a smile in them as they twinkled.

Though I couldn't really see Sara at this point, I could feel her smile before she stepped closer and dragged me along with her.

"They're so tiny," Lindsey started to choke up.

I smiled and soon things got blurry as tears began to fall from their respective ducts. "Yeah, just like you were once upon a time."

Sara squeezed my hand and kissed my cheek where a salty tear once rolled. "Can I hold one?"

"Sure," Lindsey said, handing Sara the little girl. "Her name's Catherine Grace."

"Oh, my God," I said before I couldn't control the tears. "You named her Catherine?"

"Of course. You're my mom. I look up to you so it only makes sense to name her after my hero," Lindsey answered.

I smiled and Sara kissed Catherine Grace's forehead. "She's a beautiful as the two of you put together. Man, are you going to worry about boys in the future."

"I think we should save that for later…like when the future is the present," Tom said from the other side of the hospital bed. He rubbed his hand over his son's head that had a bit of hair already on it as did Catherine Grace's head.

"Could I hold her," I asked Sara.

"Of course. The real question is whether or not you can see yet."

"Oh, can it."

She smiled and handed Catherine Grace over to me.

"May I…?" Sara motioned to hold the little boy cradled in Lindsey's arm and she gave a smile in passing on her son.

"We named him Darren Patrick. Patrick is Tom's dad's name, so…"

We all understood.

Catherine Grace squirmed a bit in my arms as babies often do and made a cute little noise, a small grunt not many could hear unless they paid full attention. Darren was about to cry in Sara's arms as he fidgeted. I pegged him as I kid who would hardly appreciate being forced still for more than a few seconds. Sara seemed to know what to do as she instantly quieted Darren by saying, "Shh" over and over again while bouncing him up and down. He then changed his fussiness to moving his arms around in front of Sara and licking his lips.

Adorable.

"So, mom…you figure out if I was right or not," Lindsey pulled my attention back to the rest of the room instead of Sara and the babies.

"Oh…yeah. Meet Grandma Sidle," I cocked my head in Sara's direction.

She smiled and kissed Darren's right hand that clenched and unclenched several times as he waved it around. He was getting used to his motor functions and he enjoyed every last bit of them from the looks of it.

Lindsey smiled and reached behind her head for Tom's hand. He took it and the happy couple proved themselves ready for parenting by the expressions on their faces as they stared at their offspring.

Six months later, I was in bed with the love of my life. The morning sun warmed the room through the partially split curtains in our bedroom at what used to be only "my" place. A smile was plastered on my face from the second my eyes pried themselves open for the day and I intently watched Sara feign her sleep. She had been up a few minutes before me and she was trying to conceal that fact though she knew we both knew the smile on her face was reality acting on her emotions compared to whatever dream I was supposed to think she came up.

"I love you," I whispered into her ear before I chastely kissed her lips. "And you know that you don't have to be awake before I do anything to you…so watch out if you can hear me."

Her smile cracked further up her face and I knew I had her cooperation.

"I love you too." One of her eyes popped open and I leaned in for a real kiss.

"Wanna get married now?"

"Where and when?"

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**_Thanks for reading. I just had to get this out since I thought the beginning was a cool idea. I had no idea I wanted to have Lindsey pregnant until the words flowed out of my head, so you can see I put much thought into this. ;) _**

**_Sorry if you think I should spend more time updating my other two stories, but I can't help what I want to write for the day. :)_**

**_I can tell you though that I am working on a fifth chapter for Welcome to Vegas and I have plans for a Halloween oneshot, so be on the look out the week before All Hallows Eve. :D_**

**_Reviews still much appreciated. :D_**


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